The reason for the imparting of eternal life is that God is love. It is the nature of God to love, and God is faithful to that nature. This love impels the Divine Source to send the Son, one who shares this nature and whose very essence is this sharing. Although the...
Jesus said nothing about endowments, pension funds, canon law, stewardship campaigns, diocesan structures, music programs, or even potluck lunches. He didn’t mention who would own church real estate. He said nothing about altar guilds, and we aren’t even sure where he...
Then he starts calling names, “Jim and bill, you take Baldwin; John and Nancy, Batesville. Bob and Gil, I’m thinking Alto for you… Here’s what I need you to do: preach the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the outcasts, cast out demons. Boy, do I need a...
It is easier to love people in a theoretical sense while on a mission trip or in the spotlight or when you get fringe benefits and it makes you feel good. Love is, by definition, putting others before yourself. That means caring about what they care about—before,...
The ideal of church music is found in its function. This function is religious: to bring to stronger and clearer consciousness and to greater vitality our inherent religious nature. At the heart of church music must be the consciousness of this religious nature: the...
There can be no scattered people of God without the gathered people of God. There can be no good works, fruit bearing, Kingdom extension, evangelism, mercy, or missions without worship. from Worship: Beholding the Beauty
If the liturgy of the church in the United States is to continue to have spiritual vitality, then we must listen to new voices and incorporate them into the planning and presentation of the worship experience… The songs, prayers and confessions from the global...
Congregations that discern the mission of God in the world and discover their participation in it will shape the future of the Church in North America. Missional churches are ones that see their purpose for existence as incarnating the life and ministry of Jesus...
In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other...
Next to the calling of the disciples, I expect that Matthew’s story about their sending forth is one of the most confrontational stories in all the Bible. Can you imagine? There you are, perfectly content to be a follower, when Jesus comes home all worn out one day...